Ohaiyo! So this chapter I decided to do something different with. It's going to be mostly from Shisui's point of view, leaving out Itachi's life events that are shown in his books/the anime that just came out. I suggest watching the anime or reading the Itachi Shinden books before reading this story in general, but I'll make reference points, so the story can stand on its own. It'll just be easier to get the full picture with the background knowledge... Okay I'm rambling now, so without further ado!

I still, sadly don't own Naruto...

Shisui rushed towards the village ahead of even his jonin leader, as if the devil himself were on his tale. The night before they had just gotten done hunting down a boar that hand been ruining farms about a one and half days travel from Konaha when they got the message. Immediately, Shisui had taken off, forgetting his duty entirely with a burning hot fear coursing through him.

The kyuubi had attacked, the Hokage was dead along with countless other villagers, and all Shisui could think of was Itachi. If he lost Itachi now... Shisui couldn't even bring himself to ponder that scenario as he expertly pumped more chakra into his 7 year old legs and picked up his pace towards his home. If he could keep it up, he'd be there in 2 hours.

'No, one hour.' He thought to himself as he pushed himself to his limit. He heard the faint calling of his sensei and teammate trailing behind him, but he couldn't care about that in this moment as he tried to focus on the pushing of his legs and nothing else.

Shisui had calculated correctly and reached the gates in an hour almost exactly, his teammates still several kilometers behind. He waved to the gaurds and swiftly went in search of Itachi's chakra. Ever resilient as his home was, they had already started rebuilding. It had been four days since the attack, Shisui and his team had missed the funeral he so desperately wasn't also for Itachi, and now everyone was picking themselves back up.

He could have screamed when he felt the familiar chakra off in the distance to his left. As quick as his young body had let him, he jumped on a half caved in roof and lept from building to building until he found Itachi. Panting, and with one eye open, he finally saw the grey-black haired boy cradling his baby brother in his arms. Shisui gave himself a moment to rest before he would leap down.

Itachi was speaking to a girl he didn't recognize with brown hair and an Uchiha fan on the back of her purple shirt, Shisui could just barely make out what they were saying.

"Thank you, uh- I mean for saving me that is, Itachi-kun." The girl stammered, obviously nervous.

Itachi, as oblivious to normal things as always simply told her, "I'm glad you didn't die." To which she sweat dropped and Shisui held his hand over his mouth to stop from laughing loudly. 'Tachi sure has a way with people.' He thought sarcastically to himself, but he knew Itachi was being serious.

He then witnessed the girl trying to hold the baby Sasuke much to the infants distress. As soon as he was reinstated into Itachi's arms he started laughing and clapping happily. Shisui found himself to be nothing but happy that his friend had someone so precious to him.

Looking up, Itachi finally noticed him, and though the girl wasn't attuned to the facial language of Itachi, Shisui was. He could see pure relief flash over Itachi's face, to which Shisui blushed slightly and made a hand gesture for river before quickly making himself scarce.

He ran to the Naka river, finding a place beneath the trees to relax for a moment. He'd been running for a day straight, faster than even his sensei had and quite frankly he was exhausted. He wanted to go to sleep, but his need to see Itachi outweighed that need for a moment.

Itachi finally came into view not 10 minutes later, missing his ever present bundle on his chest.

"Where's the little squirt?" Shisui replaced a proper greeting with.

"I passed by Father and asked if he could take him for a while." Itachi had the signature worried look on his face he only seemed to use with Shisui. It was if he could read the younger's thoughts.

"Ya'know, 'Tachi, you should give your dad a chance."

To this Itachi tilted his head in an almost mechanical manner, making his elder laugh.

"He's the face of the Uchiha, that's what Mama always told me. It can't be easy, all that pressure ya'know." And he knew Itachi knew about pressure, as did Shisui. Itachi seemed to ponder this for a moment before dismissing it and changing his focus.

"I'm glad you didn't die, Shisui." The seriousness of his tone somewhat mirroring the one he used with the girl, but his eyebrows drew together in a way that told the elder it was a stronger feeling behind this confession.

He couldn't help but smile as he got up and stretched. "I'm glad you didn't either, Tachi." A sudden thought crossed his mind. "Do you know what happened to my house?"

The younger's face was somber as he slowly shook his head at the elder.

"That bad, huh? Wonder who I should talk to about getting a tent." He joked.

"Father said the whole clan is moving to a new area as soon as it can be built. I'm sure Mother would be okay if you stayed in our rental until then." The shy look on his younger's face was priceless.

"I'd end up sleeping there anyway." To this Itachi made a slight twitch of his lips Shisui knew to take as a smile. A part of him knew that other would find their sleeping habits strange, but being 5 and 7 year old veterans was more strange he rationalized to himself.

"Want to spar?" Itachi asked suddenly.

Shisui took stock of his condition and shook his head. "How about I teach you something instead?" To this, Itachi's face lit up and a real smile, if you could call it that broke onto his face, causing Shisui's heart to do odd things.

"Alright, how about..." He pondered for a moment. "Shadow clones?"

Itachi gave him the most shocked and confused he'd ever seen. He explained, "I had to learn it to bypass the academy, it only took me 2 days, but I bet you can beat it." He challenged, hitting the right button he saw Itachi's shoulders square. He quickly demonstrated the hand signs and made one perfect clone before releasing it and sinking on the grass exhausted, closing his eyes. 'That should keep him busy.'

He heard the tell-tale poof and opened his eyes to assess a surely faulty clone, with slight teasing of course. But when he opened his eyes, he saw two perfectly identical Itachis both giving him a smug look.

"What- How-" He got another smug look at his speechlessness. He conceded closing his eyes. "You really are exceptional, you know that Tachi?"

The younger continued trying to make as many clones as he could manage, even being exceptional it seemed he only had enough chakra to maintane two clones. When he was panting they decided to go find his mother to ask if they could house Shisui. She of course said yes, with a fond smile at the two of them.

When the Uchiha district was complete four months later, Shisui was given a small one room apartment he barely used a couple of streets from Itachi's over flowing mansion. Itachi was in the academy now, having turned six and Shisui was on his way to becoming a chunin quickly. Fugaku took a special interest in both boys, noticing their growth and often encouraged them to train together when Itachi got home from the academy. Little did the head of their clan, or anyone else for that matter, know that Itachi often used the clone jutsu Shisui had taught him several months before to send his clones to school. He spent most everyday with Shisui when he wasn't away on a mission, and the two quickly became even closer than either had thought possible.

They honed their skills together every chance they got, only stopping to play silly games Itachi's father would see as beneath them by the river. And as always, they spent every night that Shisui was in the village sleeping in Itachi's room. Shisui would only remain there until the sun rose, before he'd deftly maneuver out of the bed and make his way back to his tiny empty apartment to prepare for the day.

When Itachi was 8 he made genin, just as a 10 year old Shisui was in training to be an exceptionally young Jonin. Their routine remained much the same, save for their missions, and now when Shisui would sneak out in the morning, he'd wake Itachi and give him an adoring kiss on the forehead that the younger never thought to question.

One night, however, when Shisui jumped through Itachi's window at midnight to greet him from a mission that dragged a strange amount of time past its initial duration, he was greeted by a crying Itachi with glowing crimson eyes. Shisui immediately understood, rushing over to embrace the breaking boy.

Itachi didn't speak at all for a long time, limply letting himself be held by his elder.

With the voice of someone much older than an 8 year old, he whispered "He was my friend." To which Shisui nodded and removed the head band from his head to kiss his forehead. He smelled like blood and Shisui noticed his clothes had a slight crust to them. With out another thought, he lifter Itachi onto his back and carried him to the bathroom connected to his room.

Shisui was beginning to become unsettled by the way Itachi limping sagged onto the tile floor. He went over to run a bath and when he turned, Itachi hadn't moved. Shisui knew Itachi had been holding this in, as he did all things, until he arrived. He cursed himself for waiting until such a late hour before sneaking in.

Shisui slowly walked over to the boy and got on his knees in front of him. "Lift your arms." He instructed and Itachi complied, his eyes coal black again, the deep bruises under his eyes and his slight odor indicating it had been some time since Itachi had slept or bathed. The normally perfectly put together prodegy had been reduced to a sobbing heap covered in blood and durt on the floor, and his parents (Shisui added to himself with a hateful scorn, his FATHER) had left him like this. He knew the next days would be filled with praise and meetings regarding Itachi's Sharingan, and no one would ask him how he was dealing with his teammates death.

Shisui took it upon himself to be everything Itachi needed, every chance he got, so with the careful, adoring hands of a mother he undress the young Uchiha and settled him in the tub. A part of him wondered how either of them could be this comfortable with each other when they could barely stand the prolonged company of anyone else, but quickly refocused his mind.

He made quick work of scrubbing the younger limp body, ignoring the stirring butterflies in his belly he'd noticed he got around Itachi since he started puberty. The younger barely even so much as blinked the whole time. When he washed Itachi's now shoulder lengthed hair, the water turned a light pink that caused Itachi to cringe slightly. Taking note of his reactions, Shisui made sure to hurry before lifting his friend out of the tub bridal style and carrying his still wet body to the bed. He went to find him clothes, but was stopped by an iron grip on his wrist. He looked down as fear crossed Itachi's eyes.

Reading his thoughts, Shisui whispered "I'm just getting you some clothes Tachi." To this Itachi lowered his hand.

When the younger was dressed, he lay next time him, looking into lost, coal eyes.

"I didn't understand." Shisui was somewhat taken aback by the first words Itachi had managed to utter in a long while.

"Hm?"

"Sadness and loss, I thought I understood what it meant. I thought I knew, but this..." His usually articulate and precise speech interrupted by confusion and exhaustion, he took a deep breath. "I know what sadness is now, Shisui, I know what some of what you felt all those years ago."

Shisui's heart sank slightly at the reminder of his parents death's but he tried to not let it show.

"And I did nothing to help you, like you're helping me." Itachi looked at him with what others might think as pity, but he understood as he had all those years ago when they met that it was a look of knowledge and shared pain.

"Shhh, shh Tachi." He ran a soothing hand through Itachi's wet hair. "You did help me, I coulda been alone ya'know, but I've never been alone thanks to you. Go to sleep now, Tachi."

Itachi pondered this for a moment like he did most everything his elder said, and a look of realization came over his face suddenly as he met his elder's eyes again. Before Shisui could understand this change, Itachi leaned forward and pecked Shisui softly on the lips. Shisui was left wide eyed and stunned, as Itachi gave a curt nod.

"Shisui?"

"Y-ya?"

"I love you." The seriousness on his face made Shisui smile. Any other eight year old would mistake many things for love, he knew. But this was Itachi, and when Itachi said something, he meant it.

"I love you too, Tachi."

A few more months passed, and their young lives continued to change. Shisui was now fully instated as a jonin at 11, and went on increasingly dangerous and lengthy missions. Itachi was on his way to chunin at 9, slightly slower than Shisui had, but still with all of the grace and speed true to the prodigy he was. As Shisui had predicted, Fugaku's entire focus had shifted to his elder son's new eyes, and Itachi felt building pressure on his tiny shoulders. No more love confessions or kisses were shared past the night Shisui had taken care of Itachi's broken state, but a new understanding had formed between them.

A training exercise came across Shisui's attention in the forest of death and he could think of no other genin to bring than Itachi. He noticed the only time Itachi looked comfortable in his home was at night when all he could focus on was Shisui. He was happy he was able to teach the young prodigy a few things, like when they were younger, and they shared a hot meal in front of a camp fire like they had when they met in what seemed like another lifetime. Soon, though, their meal was interrupted by an anbu fight.

In their fight fight protecting an anbu from what Shisui soon recognized as Foundation members, they found themselves discussing what a true shinobi should be. Shisui came to his realization telling them all, and striking a lasting chord in Itachi that, "Self-sacrifice… a nameless shinobi who protects peace from within its shadow. That is the true mark of a shinobi!"

The boys split up, and both won their fights, true to the prodigies they were. Shisui found himself cringing when the only conscious member of the Foundation said their names and told them they'd be watching.

He noticed after clearing things up with his supervisors that Itachi had sprained his ankle. He quickly went to wrap it, much to the younger's protest. "When you first use your Sharingan, your mind processes what's happening faster than your body can react, leaving a gap. When you try to overcompensate for that gap, this happens."

"You're still making too big of a deal about it." The younger retorted puffing out his cheek and opening pouting as he did so often to Shisui. But when he tried to stand he was left with no choice but the let Shisui carry him home on his back. Shisui tried to ignore the pounding in his chest at their proximity.

He was so caught up in trying to control his body on the walk back to Itachi's house, he barely noticed the boy speak. He caught the tale end of it, understanding none the less.

"...Where's the justice in that?"

Shisui smiled at the ever questioning Itachi and replied the best way he could. "I don't even know if there is such a thing as justice in the shinobi world. We fight believing in our own justice. But if the enemy is doing the same thing, who's right?"

Itachi seemed to ponder this for a moment. "I don't know." He whispered, obviously dismayed and exhausted.

"I don't know either, but I do know one thing. I will never, ever betray you, Tachi." He felt the grip on his chest tighten slightly and could just feel Itachi's smile. "You must be tired from using your Sharingan, sleep now, Tachi." He told Itachi, as he did almost every night. The boy was so exhausted he didn't even stir when Shisui laid him in the bed, and cuddled close to him.

His last memory of the night was of his lips pressing gently to Itachi's forehead as he tugged on his pony-tail adoringly.

Wooooot! Long Chapter! So that was the last of the little kid part. In the next chapter they'll be 11 and 13, and the romance will truly begin. As I said in the beginning, I'm making them both two years older at the fall of the Uchiha clan, so they'll both be in Anbu two years longer, and we'll start deviating from cannon finally. Hope you all enjoy my retelling of the cannon events with a yaoi twist so far ^-^ Let me know how I'm doing, yeah? And a special thank you to by Beta reader, BluBoo0003!